R.I.P. CVG - 1981-2014

By Mean Machines Staff - 19 Dec, 2014

The end of an era!

Future Publishing has confirmed that the CVG brand is to be killed off, marking the end of more than three decades of video game coverage.

Computer & Video Games — CVG for short — began life back in 1981, covering the burgeoning UK home computer market. The magazine at this time was printed on black and white paper and filled largely with pages of code which, when typed into your computer, would result in a playable game.

As the '80s progressed the publication focused more on systems like the ZX Spectrum, Commodore 64, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, but when the first wave of consoles arrived from Japan, its attention switched to those platforms. Throughout the '90s the magazine's fortunes fluctuated; during the tenure of Julian Rignall — who is now in charge of US Gamer — CVG's readership exploded, but prior to the arrival of the 32-bit systems in the middle of the decade, circulation had dropped. New editor Paul Davies would step in and transform the magazine, revitalising its commercial potential and reaching an enthusiastic, dedicated audience.

In an effort to gain even more readers, EMAP decided to turn CVG into a more mainstream magazine towards the end of the '90s, a move which would prove catastrophic and would eventually result in the brand being sold to rival Dennis Publishing. Dennis would in turn sell the name to Future Publishing which ceased production of the physical magazine in 2004, choosing instead to push the brand via its website, which had been established in 1999.

Since 2004 the website has become on of the UK's leading sources of news, reviews and features. However, that hasn't prevented Future from closing it down and folding its content into GameRadar+, an "all-in-one" entertainment portal which aims to do battle with global rival IGN. Other Future websites have also been closed and their content is being migrated over to GamesRadar+.

Declan Gough, Head of Content & Marketing, Future Games, Music, Film, had this to say about the announcement:

"The new GamesRadar+ has seen huge audience growth and has exceeded all our engagement expectations. The results to date have been hugely encouraging as we move to the next stage of development. The new channels see us migrate the online audiences from Edge, Official Playstation, Total Xbox and CVG into GamesRadar+, creating an exceptionally powerful games offering and one that is totally unique. GamesRadar+ will showcase the exceptional talents of the 50+ Games, Film, TV and entertainment journalists we have at Future."

It marks a sad end to one of the UK games industry's most iconic and respected names. R.I.P. CVG!

Martin Arnold - 23 Dec 2014, 08:59 GMT

R.I.P. CVG, thanks for all the memories...another link to my youth ends. I'll have to buy a pc engine game to console myself.

ed - 06 Jan 2015, 21:17 GMT

Gutted by this - the website was still a good read although it had become a bit of advert minefield recently... I remember buying my first issue - it had a pic of Robocop on the front and a mini mag on the side in which you would put stickers of upcoming games into - this was my first sighting of Mario 3 (I only had SMB1 so this blew my tiny mind). So many great memories from both Jaz and Paul Davies eras (let's just smudge over Tim Boone's presidency shall we eh?) Bloody good reads, funny, informative and also a perfect storm of gaming machines and releases to whet our appetites, when Japan still ruled the roost and import gaming was the rage. Am stoked that Jaz is helming the great USGamer site - long may he stay there. Thanks for the memories CVG!